Everything about chocolate

DIV Kinder

Although chocolate was originally developed in Latin and South America, the Ivory Coast of West Africa makes up a huge percent of current cacao production. With over 1,3 million tons of cacao beans harvested, the Ivory Coast region produces almost three times the amount of cacao as the second-highest cacao-producing country, Indonesia. Every third cacao bean comes from the Ivory Coast. The economy of this region is heavily dependent upon the cacao trade, as evident by the 1999 civil war that occurred after a slump in the cacao market contributed to political instability.

Many small farms (1-10 Hectors) are unable to cope with decreases in cacao prices and in order to remain in business the farms utilize child labor. The dependence upon the price of cacao increases poverty in these nations, directly impacting the future of the country’s children, who often have no chance to receive education.

DIV-Kinder (which stands for Deutsch-Ivorische-Verein and means German-Ivory Association) is a Christian organization that cares for the needs of homeless and orphaned children of the Ivory Coast. Their primary interest is to provide the children with shelter and supervision. The organization’s employees work directly in these countries and make sure that donations and supplies from Germany are transferred to the homes for children.

1% of every chocolate bar purchased goes directly to the children of the Ivory Coast. So far, the first major donation project we financed was very successful and you are welcome to read more about this project and future ones on our blog.

For more information about DIV-Kinder, take a look at their website: www.div-kinder.de